1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to an image forming apparatus, a computer-readable recording medium on which a print data processing program code is recorded, and a print data processing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
A typical image forming apparatus receives print data from a host apparatus.
The host apparatus spools the print data once, divides the print data that has a large data size when the print data is to be sequentially transmitted to a printer, and sequentially deletes those data pieces whose prints have been completed.
The image forming apparatus processes the print data transmitted from the host apparatus by integrating the pieces of divided data in the image forming apparatus. To process the pieces of divided print data, the image forming apparatus consumes an amount of resources equivalent to normal (undivided) print data.
Alternatively, the host apparatus analyzes the print data and performs a reconstruction using data necessary for the printing to be transmitted to the printer. The analysis on the print data, the reconstruction, and the transmission are carried out in sequential processings instead of parallel processings.
At the time of the printing, if settings exist such as a number of copies of the print data and a sheet size, setting information is added to the print data after the reconstruction. The image forming apparatus analyzes the print data to obtain the setting information. For this reason, the analysis on the print data is redundantly carried out by both the host apparatus and the image forming apparatus.
In a case where the print data is constructed by a plurality of files like an XPS document format, the image forming apparatus expands files necessary for the print processing in sequence among compressed files to perform the printing. According to this configuration, since the files are not expanded all at once, a memory amount necessary for the data storage after the expansion may be reduced. However, as all the pieces of the received data are stored, memory is needed for spooling not only the compressed files used for the printing but also the compressed files that are not used for the printing.